HEART DISEASE & STROKE

Take Heart and Take Care: Preeclampsia May Be Associated with Heart Disease and Stroke Later in Life

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women and appears to be increasing in women aged 35 to 54 years.

Women who have had preeclampsia have three to four times the risk of high blood pressure and double the risk for heart disease and stroke. They also have an increased risk of developing diabetes. For women who had preeclampsia and delivered preterm, had low-birthweight babies, or suffered from severe preeclampsia more than once, the risk of heart disease can be even higher. While still unknown whether the risk is caused by preeclampsia or if the woman was already predisposed, these risks first emerge in the years following a complicated pregnancy. Although this may seem daunting, ample research shows that there are many ways for women to protect their heart health and that of their families!

This research does not mean you will definitely develop heart problems if you had preeclampsia, but for some women pregnancy can serve as an early warning sign for future heart disease. This kind of “heads up” gives you an opportunity to make changes now for a healthier tomorrow – and reap the benefits today, too!

Many of the risk factors for preeclampsia and other conditions affecting your blood pressure and heart are similar. They include a family history of high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes.

While you can’t change your family history, you can adopt a heart-healthy lifestyle to significantly reduce these risk factors:

Overweight or obese

High blood pressure (greater than 140/90 mm hg)

High blood sugar

High blood triglycerides (a type of fat)

Low HDL (“good” cholesterol)

Smoking

What can I do to reduce my risk for heart disease?

If you had preeclampsia, you can make lifestyle modifications now to reduce your risk. Also you should talk to your health care provider to take extra care to monitor the health of your heart and blood vessels. If you have other risk factors in addition to your history of preeclampsia, these steps are even more important. Heart disease takes years to develop and you can take steps now to reduce your risk. Making better choices today can impact your health today and in the future.

Talk to your healthcare provider about your pregnancy history

Care guidelines from the American Heart Association and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists encourage providers to ask about a woman’s pregnancy history and to consider preeclampsia a risk factor for future heart disease. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists guidelines recommend a yearly assessment to check your blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, and blood sugar levels for women with a history of early onset or recurrent preeclampsia. Other pregnancy complications also are associated with increased risk of heart disease. Be sure to let your healthcare providers know if:

You experienced preeclampsia (or high blood pressure) in any of your pregnancies and how many were impacted

You experienced gestational diabetes in any of your pregnancies, which increases the risk of diabetes later in life

Any of your babies were born more than three weeks before your due date

Any of your babies weighed less than 5-1/2 pounds at birth

Get adequate physical activity

Walk 30 minutes five times a week and do muscle-strengthening exercises two or more times a week. Do something fun like dance, yoga, or an activity with your whole family to build a habit of movement as a regular part of your life.

Eat a heart-healthy diet

Eating a diet high in fiber, vegetables, and fruits, and low in fat (the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension – or DASH – eating plan) has been proven to help lower blood pressure. Even if you don’t have high blood pressure, it will help you develop healthy eating habits and may prevent or delay your developing high blood pressure in the future. Proper diet and exercise can reduce your risk factors for heart disease.

Stay at a healthy weight

Body mass index (BMI) is your body weight relative to your height. A healthy BMI is between 18.5 and 25 (see BMI categories below). A BMI greater than 25 may increase your risk for heart disease. If your BMI is high, talk to your healthcare provider about different ways to lose weight.

If you smoke, stop!

Know your family health history

If you have a family history of high blood pressure or heart disease, you are more likely to get it later in life. Be sure to tell your care team about your family’s health history.

Talk with your doctor about aspirin

Taking low-dose aspirin may reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke depending on your age and other risk factors. (See reference for aspirin use at uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org.)

Know your numbers

Blood pressure: A healthy blood pressure is around 120/80 mm Hg or lower. If your blood pressure is higher, talk to your healthcare provider about ways to lower it including lifestyle and diet modifications. Medications may be prescribed for higher blood pressures.

Cholesterol: Talk to your healthcare provider about tracking your cholesterol (blood fats or “lipids”). If your levels are high, ask how you can lower them. Diets that include omega 3 fatty acids may help. In some cases, medications such as statins may be important to your care.

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

Privacy Policy

Normal web site usageThe Preeclampsia Foundation has a firm commitment to Internet privacy. You can visit most portions of preeclampsia.org without telling us who you are and without revealing any personal information. The only information we collect from a normal web site visit is the name of your Internet Service Provider, the browser and type of machine you are using, the web site that referred you to us, the pages you request and the date and time you request them. We use this information to generate statistics and measure site activity to improve the usefulness of the site to our visitors.

Currently we are using Google Analytics to analyze the audience of the website and improve our content. No personal information is collected from Google Analytics. For further information on the privacy policy concerning Google Analytics, please go here, https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=en "

Collection of personally identifiable informationThe Preeclampsia Foundation may collect names, email addresses and other personally identifiable data about visitors when such data is voluntarily submitted to preeclampsia.org. For example, our site uses forms for visitors to register or make a donation online. Contact information from these forms is used to send information about preeclampsia or Foundation activity to our visitors. Financial information is used to bill or provide receipts to visitors in connection with their donations. To ensure the security of credit card and personal information, this Web site employs industry-standard security methods, including the Secure Socket Layers (SSL) protocol for the encryption of transmitted data. The Preeclampsia Foundation goes to great lengths to protect the confidentiality and integrity of any personal information you share with us over the Internet. In instances where we may partner with medical organizations to conduct research on preeclampsia, your participation may be expressly requested, but your permission would be required prior to sharing personally identifiable data with authorized medical organizations.

The Preeclampsia Foundation makes every effort to ensure the secure collection and transmission of sensitive user information using industry accepted data collection and encryption methodologies.

Donor Privacy PolicyThe Preeclampsia Foundation does not sell or otherwise disclose user information outside the organization. We will not sell, trade or share a donor's personal information with anyone else, nor send donor mailings on behalf of other organizations.

Should you wish to review or make corrections to your personal information, please click Login/Join at the top of the page and enter your login information. A page titled "Edit Your Details" will appear in the main body of the page where you can view and make corrections. If you wish to be removed entirely from our database, please email info@preeclampsia.org.

CookiesWe do not use cookies on the majority of our website pages. The donate pages do use "per session" cookies. Per session cookies last only for the life of your current browser load and use no permanent storage on your hard drive. The use of per session cookies is very common in modern Web sites.